Sunday, April 1, 2012

Grilled Cheese, The Bitch That Let Go, Twinsies!

There has been so much going on these past few weeks I haven't had time to blog for you all! Did you miss me? I know you did/do/if you don't then don't read my blog, hater. Here's what I've been up to...

1. Borough Market and Tower Bridge My friends Lauren, and Meredith and I went to Borough Market, an all food market right around the corner from London Bridge! I had the most delicious/unhealthy grilled cheese in the entire world and I don't care if you're on a diet/lactose intolerant/ vegan or WHATEVER- when I get home I am making this grilled cheese and you all are going to LOVE IT. This culinary masterpiece consists of Montgomery Cheddar, Regular Cheddar, and Ogleshield cheeses topped off with several heaping teaspoons of minced leeks, red onion, and garlic. Of course the sourdough bread is bathed in buttery goodness and grill pressed to golden perfection. Is your mouth watering? TOLD YOU. Aside from the bomb.com grilled cheese, this market is full of different venders selling cheeses, fudge,meats,seafood, juices, ice cream, nuts, fruits, veggies, spreads, sauces, oils and breads, and the best of all...Turkish Delight. What is Turkish delight you may ask? Well I'll tell you. Imagine the inside of a Chuckle, if you don't know what that is...imagine the inside of a gumdrop, if you live under a rock and don't know what a gumdrop is like on the inside- get on a plane, go to London, get on the tube to London Bridge and get Turkish Delight at the Borough Market. Anywhoooo, this gummy goodness is then covered in flour...or it could be powdered sugar, I didn't ask questions I just ate it. They have an assortment of flavors such as pomegranate, strawberry, orange, coconut, toffee, lemon and even pistachio! If you push out all the information and horror stories you know about how gelatin is formed these little treats are great.

where a foodie's dreams come true

Not far from the market is Tower Bridge and Potters Fields Park, a little green patch with benches and a view of the bridge along the river where we enjoyed out fresh-squeezed juice and Turkish Delight. We walked over the Tower Bridge toward the Tower of London where the crowned jewels are held. I would have loved to go in but it costs close to 30 British Pounds ($50) and I could get my own knock off version of the crowned jewels for that much.

2. TITANIC 3D PREMIERE!

le red carpet

If you've been on Facebook in the past week you might have come across my pictures taken at the Titanic 3D Premiere at the Royal Albert Hall- if you haven't been on Facebook (what is your secret to resisting it's magical powers?) -please go stalk my pictures. I saw ACTUAL famous people that I KNOW are famous and not just look-a-likes that I see on the street! The premiere was so cool! I've never done anything like that before (and by 'like that' I mean wait in line for 3 hours and then stand against a fan barrier in 70 degree heat and sun waiting to see stars from a movie I have seen 128323957374203 times that came out when I was in kindergarten) BUT IT WAS STILL SO AWESOME. I was dumb and didn't bring anything to get signed so I took ridiculous amounts of pictures as all the fancy people walked the red carpet into the theater to see the movie in 3D. My group of friends got tickets at the last minute to see the premiere but sadly I had a group project to work on so I headed back to campus while they saw Kate once again "let go" of Leo into the cold waters of the Atlantic....she let go...the bitch let go. ps- to those of you who are wondering why I didn't snap any pics of Grown Up Leo, he wasn't at the premiere because he's still filming a movie in America and we aren't talking because I'm very disappointed in him.

3. PARENT TRAP HOUSE! "I hate the parent trap" - said NO ONE EVER. Everyone loves that movie. Dennis Quaid, Natasha Richardson, and my girl Lindsey Lohan. Stay strong LL, prison has made you a tougher person. That movie is the best thing ever. If its on ABC Family, you are watching it. If it's on Disney Channel, you are not ashamed to be 20 years old and wait for it to come on after Hannah Montana. That movie is up there with Titanic...for me at least. And I know at some point everyone has attempted the handshake. I have. My gingy friend Sam and I did the handshake in front of the house filmed in the movie. We realized we lived ridiculously close to the neighborhood after google mapping for a good 4 hours and then walking the 5 minutes to Annie and Elizabeth James' fictional home!

4. Harrods After attracting a crowd in front of the Parent Trap House, we scampered off to Harrods. This place is the most depressing place to be when your bank account is as slim as Mary-Kate Olsen. Gucci, Prada, Marc Jacobs, Tory Burch WHY MUST YOU TORTUE ME?! You can legit get lost in this place it's like a maze. I can't write anymore about Harrods it's just too hard...

5. Brick Lane and the Chocolate Festival Never in my life have I ever seen so many hipsters. Big glasses, big hair bows, skinny pants, neon tights and jorts (jean shorts), weird shoes, retro sayings on t-shirts, half-shaved heads, fedoras, the faint smell of ironically loving something and a distaste for anything mainstream/showering filled Brick Lane this morning. I went to Brick Lane for one thing, and one thing only. Bagels. Do you know how hard it is to find a decent bagel in London? It's "9-tube-stops-and-weaving-through-masses-of 'I was into Moby before he was popular'-freaks" hard. But these bagels are superb and only cost 25 pence per bagel so I was Thundercats-are-go by the time we reached the street. After surviving the mobs of hipsters my friends and I headed for South Bank to check out the Chocolate Festival, purely for the fudge. We got off the tube, made a bee-line for the fudge man and stuffed out faces sitting outside of the London Eye entrance. All in all a good day, minus how mainstream I felt.

So many fun things going on and I've only scratched a few of these off of my Bucket List! I only have 39 more days left in London and then I'm back in Connecticut where no one's accent is cute or even existent! More to come soon!Keep it classy, Marn Barn